Pre-E3 blowout day three: PC

The biggest game show in the world is almost here. Catch up with the best of what we know

CrysisEA dropped the Crysis bomb two months back at the Game Developer's Conference: a three-minute proof-of-concept trailer that allowed us to peer into the future of first-person shooters. We swallowed our gum hard and became cemented in place as we watched (...and watched) as the jungle was torn apart by automatic weapons fire. Tree limbs cracked off, explosions ripped across the landscape and mercenaries stomped through deformable foliage.

Emerging from the dense understory, our view focused sharply on the enemy ahead, adding heavy drama to the ambush. This jungle was alive. We hadn't seen since this brand of startling photo-realism since the team's last top-drawer effort, Far Cry.

Crysis' fate is intertwined with Microsoft's shiny new Vista operating system, as one of the very few announced made-for-Vista games. This presents the biggest mystery yet: can we get all of the aforementioned graphical goodies without Vista, or will we be forced to upgrade? We'll bring you the de-hyped, straight answer from the show.